Friday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 5.20.2005:

Iran smuggling graphite compound for nukes-exile
Louis Charbonnea, Reuters:

Iran has been using front companies to skirt international export controls and purchase a graphite compound that can be used in nuclear and conventional arms, an Iranian exile said on Friday.

The latest allegation from Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian dissident who has reported accurately on Iran's hidden nuclear facilities and activities in the past, ...

"Iran has been smuggling into the country a key material that is important to build a nuclear bomb," said Jafarzadeh ...

Jafarzadeh said the controlled substance is a graphite compound called ceramic matrix composite. READ MORE

Here are a few other news items you may have missed.

• Saul Singer of the Jerusalem Post asks, "Is invasion America's only means to topple rogue regimes?"
• Tehran Times reports that further EU3 are uncertain and that Iran will never entrust foreigners with enriching its processed nuclear products.
• Iran Press Service reports that Iranian journalists are threatening to stop reporting parliament news.
• United Press International reports that Iran's military is focusing on asymmetric warfare and nuclear weapons because its conventional armed forces are outdated.
• The Los Angeles Times reports that a senior State Department official said they saw no signs that current disarmament efforts would deter the country's rulers from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
• Reuters reports that Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, an architect of the Islamic revolution, told Reuters Iranians would not vote in large numbers on June 17.
• Businessday.co.za reports that Iran’s presidential race is turning nasty, with frontrunner Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family increasingly targets for attacks over money and morality.
• U.S. Department of State said "The United States hopes for better relations with Iran, but the onus is on the government in Tehran to change its policies..."
• The Associated Press reports that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran's leaders "should not consider themselves immune" to the changes taking place in the region.
• Associated Press reports that the State Department says there will be no new economic incentives for Iran.
• The Pennisula reports that Iran's state television network has embarked on giving the Iranian public a crash course in the joys of atomic power.
• And finally, Rafsanjani, desperate to appeal to Iranian young voters had a photo session with non-traditional Iranian youth.